And that point is 92.5 percent occupancy, according to a team of researchers at University of Cologne in Germany.
They studied more than 82,000 patients in German hospitals. Among the 17 percent of patients in the sample who experienced occupancy above the tipping point during the first seven days of their hospital stay, high occupancy accounted for one in seven deaths.
When hospital occupancy is very high, employees are forced to ration resources due to excessive demand, and employees can become stressed, which negatively impacts their cognitive abilities. “Neither the organization nor its clinical staff are able to absorb a further increase in occupancy beyond the safety tipping point without significant deterioration in the quality of care,” the researchers concluded.
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